StarKid: The Golden Necklace
by WeasleyHartley
Summary: Darren has received a strange golden necklace from a fan. However, when he meets up with some of the StarKids, the necklace begins to cause more trouble than it's worth. Inspired by a dream I had, please enjoy!
1. The Golden Necklace

The StarKids were reunited with Darren for the first time in ages. He'd managed to get some time off from Glee, and seen as though Apocalyptour was now finished, they figured that this would be the perfect time for a get-together. Joining Darren was Brian, Dylan, Joe Walker and Joey (who had made the trip over from LA with Darren) Denise, Meredith, Jaime, Lauren and Julia. All of them had brought drinks along for a little party, and they'd ordered unfathomable amounts of pizzas. They spent most of the day chilling in the middle of the lounge watching DVDs and talking about future and past musicals.

"_So Darren, what the hell is that thing you've got around your neck?" _Jaime asked, perking her head up from her pillow._  
"Oh, this?" _He held it up for inspection _"It's just a necklace that a fan gave me. It's pretty neat really."_

All of the StarKids clambered over to see it. It appeared to be in the shape of a planet, but not one that any of them could recognise (Julia suggested that it was Pigfarts, but Lauren corrected her immediately, stating that Pigfarts was definitely pink.) It was gold plated, and it had a green gem at the core of the planet.

"_Dude, that's awesome! Jeez, your fans really love you, that must've cost a fortune!" _Joey beamed.  
_"I know, I'm so grateful to the lot of them. But this, it's just really weird. The gem at the centre seems to glow brightly all of a sudden, all by itself. I mean, it doesn't even have a battery." _Darren said, examining the object clinging to his neck.  
_"Maybe it's glow in the dark?" _Dylan suggested.  
_"No man, it does it all the time, even in the light. The fan that gave it to me, she seemed to be pretty glad to be relieved of it really, she was pretty quiet. I mean, really quiet. She came up to me, said nothing, looked me dead in the eye and handed it to me, then ran off."  
"Ah, she must've just been scared by your domineering height and stature." _Walker giggled, nudging Brian in the arm slightly who laughed back at Darren.  
_"Yeah yeah, very funny guys." _Darren said sarcastically _"I've heard it all befo…."_

But before Darren could finish his sentence a large buzz began to erupt from his necklace. The gem inside the planet began to glow exceedingly brightly, causing everyone to yell and back off into different corners of the room.

"_Woah, Darren, what the hell is going on!" _Screamed Julia and Denise, huddling back into the sofa.  
_"I don't know! It's never done this before!"  
"Darren, just take it off" _Joe shouted from behind the coffee table.

Darren reached round to the latch at the back of his neck. He pulled at the clamp, but the necklace just buzzed louder and a huge force pushed his hands away from the chain.

" _I can't do it! It won't let me!" _he shouted back at the StarKids  
_"Ok, joke over, stop this now Darren, it's not funny anymore." _Lauren yelled, as she clung to Joey's arm.  
_"Lauren, I'm not joking about, I have no idea what's going on!"_

The necklace continued to buzz all the louder. The StarKids were all looking around petrified. Joe and Dylan were huddled over by the coffee table, Jaime, Denise and Julia were crowded onto the sofa, Joey and Lauren were to the left of the TV in a heap and Brian and Meredith were spread against the wall. Darren ran across to the door, yanking at the chain to try and get it from his neck, but nothing would work. He couldn't see anymore, the green light from his chest was now blocking his view; he tried to look for the StarKids, but he couldn't even tell whereabouts he was anymore. The noise from the gem grew louder and louder and the heat from the stone was now beginning to burn at his chest; he knew something was about to happen. At the top of his voice, he cried to his friends:

"_EVERYONE, GET DOWN…"_

Bang. Darkness._  
_


	2. The madness begins

Walker was the first one to stir after the explosion. He picked himself up off the floor and looked around. All of the other StarKids were spread about over the whole room, every single one of them appeared to be knocked out. But something puzzled Joe. He didn't remember each of the StarKids being in the same places in the room at the time of the explosion. Furthermore, his eye-line appeared to be distinctly shorter than he was use to. He glanced around the room, his head still aching from the blast. The room looked completely unharmed; everything was perfectly in it's place, as if nothing had happened. Then he glanced down.

He could not believe his eyes. He was in a white vest top, a pair of high-waist blue shorts, and ballerina pumps. He also appeared to have breasts.

"_What…. the…"  
_But he stopped as soon as he opened his mouth. His voice was incredibly high-pitched. He gasped a little at the sound he just made, and he fumbled around his body with his hands. Nope. Defiantly not his.

He ran to the nearest mirror and stopped dead in his tracks. That wasn't his own reflection he saw. _It was Lauren's._

"_Arghh, what the hell was that…"_

Walker pivoted on the spot; one of the other StarKids in the room had stirred, but he recognised the voice instantly. He tip-toed over to where the voice had come from and looked down; someone was pulling themselves up from the floor, but he swore that he'd seen that outfit somewhere before. The figure turned round and looked down at Joe, mouth wide open

"_Wait... what… but, that's me! Why are you me! And who am I?"  
_  
The other Joe glanced down at himself. He paused for a few seconds, then let out a small shriek, fumbling around, putting his hands on his face and muttering _"Oh my God!"  
_  
_"Hold on a second…. is that…. is that you Lauren?"  
"Yeah! Well, I thought I was, but now I appear to be someone else. Who are you?"  
"It's me. It's Walker. And you are me…. God I'm confused."  
"Wait, what did you say?"_

Joe led Lauren cautiously over to the mirror, whilst she muttered random stuff in bemusement. She looked back at her new reflection in the mirror and slammed her hands immediately to her face.

_"What! But, how can this happen! What the hell even happened!"  
_  
By this time, other StarKids had begun to wake up. Denise, who had been swapped with Brian, was screaming and yelling at the top of her voice, whereas Brian was too busy checking out his new chest. Meredith had woken Joey up by accidently kicking him in the face when she realised that she was now him. Dylan was too busy trying to confront a frantic Julia, whose face had turned a fluorescent red whilst gazing back at her own reflection. But two of the StarKids were nowhere to be found.

"_Hey guys" _muttered Brian in Denise's voice _"has anyone noticed where Jaime and Darren are?"  
"Oh my god, I wonder if they've swapped too." _Joey pondered whilst playing with his new silky locks of brown hair. He was stopped in his tracks with a little hand slap courtesy of Meredith, with her crooked jaw firmly locked into a frown.

The gang began to frantically search about for their missing friends. They looked everywhere across HQ whilst all still completely confused as to what was going on.

"_Guys! Quickly, come here! I've found… well…. I think I've found Darren." _Shouted Julia in Dylan's voice.__

A StarKid stampede ensued across to the kitchen, where they discovered an unconscious Darren on the floor. He was slumped up against the sink, and had clearly been knocked back some distance because of the blast.

"_Darren, Darren" _called the Lauren-fied Joe _"Come on buddy, wake up." _

Darren began to stir, and shook his head violently from side to side. He opened his eyes wide, and peered at all the StarKids that were clambering around to look at him.  
_"Guys…. Is everything ok?" _said Darren, his concerned eyes glancing around from person to person.  
_"Darren, it's ok, you're gonna freak out, but it's gonna be ok." _Said Joe reassuringly _"That necklace you're wearing, we think it's…."  
"I'm not Darren, Lauren. It's me, Jaime."_

__Everyone stared blankly back at Jaime, their mouths wide open. Jaime noticed their shocked faces and stood up slowly.  
_"Ok, guys, you're seriously freaking me out, what is going on here?"  
"Jaime," _said Denise through Brian's lips _"have you listened to your voice?"  
_Jaime paused for a second, then realised what Denise had just said. She slowly tilted her head downwards. Her chest had completely flattened, and she felt really short for some reason. She slowly lifted her hands up towards her face. Facial hair. That was new. And her eyebrows, since when did they turn triangular? All of her hair had disappeared, and she was left with a mound of short curly locks.  
_"What the hell has ha….."_

But she was cut short. A scream had erupted from across the other side of the room, and every StarKid spun around to look for the source. Their eyes met the sight of the real Darren peering into the mirror and witnessing the vision of Jaime looking back at him. Jaime pushed through the crowd to get back to her real body, as Darren turned around to face himself. Their eyes met. They shrieked. They both fainted.

_What the hell had just happened?_


	3. It's just like Freaky Friday

An hour had passed since the explosion. Most of the StarKids had stopped freaking out by now; all expect Darren, who was too busy shouting at his reflection of Jaime in the mirror.

"_You idiot. You Goddamn idiot. Why didn't you take it off when you had the chance?"  
"Darren," _said the real Jaime _"I get it, you're upset, but can you please calm down so we can figure out a way to get this fixed?"_

Darren let his head bang against the mirror a few times, the cool of the glass chilling his fore-head, then allowed himself to be led back towards the couch where all the other StarKids had gathered.

"_Ok," _squeaked Joe, his high pitched Lauren-voice shocking himself again _"I think we need to work back from the start to where we are now. Jaime, let's take a look at that necklace."  
"I haven't got it!" _Jaime piped up after a few seconds of fumbling around her new body in every imaginable place, _"It's definitely not on me."  
"Wait," _Joey stammered as Meredith _"Darren, look at your neck."_

Brushing aside his new locks of brown hair, Darren rummaged around and spotted the necklace lying on his chest.

"_It must've changed over with me." _he gasped, as he scuffled around for the catch around the back of his neck. To his surprised, it clicked open almost instantly.  
_"Oh yeah. Now it comes off." _Darren muttered, as he handed over the necklace to Joe for inspection.

No one could notice anything unusual about the necklace; it looked just like any other. The buzzing had long since stopped and the gem remained in its dull emerald shade, with no ounce of glow radiating from its centre. The StarKids began to come up with other ideas as to how to change back; Lauren suggested that they should run at each other from opposite sides of the room, only to be reminded by Jaime that that idea came from 'Freaky Friday' and it didn't even work. Brian, Dylan and Joey tried pinching their arms; thinking that they would wake up from a horrible nightmare, but that didn't work either. They just received harrowing looks of disapproval from Julia, Denise and Meredith, who weren't happy at the idea of their own arms being bruised for nothing. Jaime was now busy arguing with Joe as to what to do with the necklace, holding it aloft so that Joe couldn't reach it from his new shrunken height. The row now began to escalate, with each of the StarKids yelling at each other to have their ideas heard.

The only person that remained silent was Darren, who sat quietly in an armchair on the opposite side of the room, his hang resting on his head out of tiredness and pain (he had banged his head in the explosion, and a large lump had begun to emerge on his crown.) Most of his mind was wracked with guilt, as he gazed on his muddled-up friends quarrelling with one another; the other part of his brain was running through every single possibility as to why the necklace had done this. He tried to remember the fan, how she had quickly passed the necklace onto him and left immediately. Who was she? Why did she give it to him? Did she know the necklace would do this, and if so, what did she hope to gain out of this? All sorts of idea tumbled in and out of his mind, until, something clicked.

The Jaime-fied Darren slowly rose from his armchair, as his brown eyes bulged out of their sockets in realisation.

"_Guys…." _Darren called_ "Guys, I've got it." _But his small voice couldn't be heard over the raucous racket that was now taking place. The boy's argument with the girls had now escalated, as Brian-fied Denise had started to cry out of sheer desperation. Joe and Jaime had started to fight over the necklace, with Joe trying desperately to rugby-tackle Jaime to the ground. He eventually managed to knock her over, but it sent the necklace flying straight into Darren's open hand.

"_GUYS!" _Darren bellowed, at the top of his voice. Everybody stopped in their tracks and turned around to face Darren, the necklace clenched in his fist.

"_I have an idea."_


	4. Darren's plan

The Jaime-fied Darren sprinted outside towards the backyard, quickly pursued by a gaggle of frantic StarKids. His new plan had filled him with a sudden excitement and adrenaline that pushed him faster towards the yard than anyone else; the plan, he thought, would finally set everything right, and the idea that all of his friends would get out of this mess unscathed spurred him on all the more. He jumped the small patio outside the back door and then dived into a shed that was mostly filled with old props from past shows, but he knew that the StarKids also stored tools in there to build sets. The remainder of the StarKids gathered cautiously on the concrete, observing Jaime's frantic body tumbling through the mess of the shed, each looking from one to another to find out what was going on.

"_I remember…" _Darren spluttered, rummaging through the mess _"something the fan said."  
"But I thought you said she didn't say anything?" _shouted Jaime"_You said she gave you the necklace and then just ra…."  
"No no no…" _he called over the top of her _"She muttered something as she ran off, I think I can just about remember what."  
"Oh, now you're telling us?" _sighed Brian from near the back of the crowd.  
_"Well, it didn't exactly occur to me at the time when this necklace was partly blinding me in the eyes did it?"  
"Ok, ok, point made Darren" _yelled Dylan. _"Can you just tell us what she said?"_

But Darren was still too busy rummaging through the mess to reply. He was too preoccupied with his search to realise that he a loosened a huge pile of old props from their stance, until it was too late; a huge crash thundered as the mound of props came tumbling down on his head.

"_I'm ok, I'm ok" _Darren shouted from inside the mess, as he picked himself back up. The other StarKids muttered and rolled their eyes.  
_"Typical Darren" _smiled Julia _"Always like to make a racket about everything."  
"Ha ha guys. Very funny….. oh no… wait a sec… give me a….. I see ya, I see ya… GOTCHA!"_

A few seconds of silence followed, until, _BANG, CRASH, BANG, SMASH_, Darren came tumbling out of the shed, holding what appeared to be a hammer in his hand.

" _Ooook." _Murmured Denise, as Joe and Dylan ran over to help pick Darren up, _"Do you mind telling us what your plan is please?"  
"The fan… she didn't just… she didn't just hand me the necklace… she muttered something after…"  
"Yes, yes, Darren you've told us that part, tell us what she said." _asked Lauren hastily.  
_"All she said was, 'The Gem, that gem has to go.'"_

Every StarKid looked around completely bemused.

"_And yet, you still took it off her?" _tittered Meredith.  
_"Look, she didn't give me an opportunity to give it back, I had to leave quickly anyway!"  
"Ok then, so what's the plan?" _asked Joey

Darren looked back at his confused friends, and twirled the hammer in his hand, smiling a little.

_"Ok Darren, so what you're saying is that we need to smash that gem, and then everything will be fine?" _quizzed Joe.

Darren nodded reassuringly; however, inside he wasn't sure whether his plan would work at all. He knew that he had got the StarKids into this mess, and he was determined to get them out of it, whatever it took. He pulled the necklace from out of his pocket and laid it on the floor of the yard. He took a few paces back and breathed heavily.

"_Um, Darren" _asked the real Jaime _"Are you sure that you want to break it? I mean, you're… I mean… I'm not that strong you know."  
"Yeah, maybe I should do it" _piped up Lauren, who examined her new muscles whilst beaming down at the real Joe who just shook his head.

"_No guys, I think I should do it. I'm so sorry. This is all my fault, and you guys, if anything ever happened to you because of it, I couldn't live it down."  
"Well, buddy, it's a little late for that I think, something pretty big has happened!" _said Brian jokingly, who quickly received a nudge in the chest from a Meredith-fied Joey.

Darren smiled gently at all his friends, who all nodded back in approval. He looked back at his own body, at the real Jaime, who smiled back at him, her eyes piercing his own with the courage to go on. He took a few more paces back from the necklace, which lay sprawled out on the concrete. The gem seemed to twinkle, as Darren kept his eyes focused on its emerald centre, preparing for the impact of the hammer. A few seconds past, until he finally took his run at the necklace and hauled the hammer down on top of it.

He heard the clang of the hammer meeting the necklace, but the clash of it breaking that he expected to hear didn't come. Instead, he found himself being kicked backwards away from the jewel, which had begun to beam a bright green again. Darren was flung through the cool air, unable to see his friends from the fluorescent light that blinded his view once again. He felt his head hit the ground, and then everything turned black.


End file.
